NACS Edmonton(Junior womens free skate only)

[florac]

Note: This is the first time I have taken notes for a skating competition and although I tried my best, the reports below may be missing certain elements. I can identify the jumps accurately as I use to skate when I was younger but some of the other elements I could not identify I left out. I tried my best and I hope this can give everybody a minimal idea of how things turned out. I apologize in advance if I have made any errors.

Junior ladies practice session(group 1):

Michelle Cantu(Mexico): She was pretty impressive, much stronger than the other girl from Mexico. In this group, I thought she stood out the most because of what she was landing. I saw her land the triple flip, lutz, loop and sal. I can't remember if she did any triple toes, if she did, she didn't do any that I saw. She landed several gorgeous and clean triple flips. Very nice. I only saw her do one or two clean triple lutzes and from the angle where I was sitting, it's very possible that she flutzed. Everything else was very strong. She had a pretty spiral sequence that went right into the loop and she did this very well.

Emily Naphtal(Mexico): She tried up to triple loop and the ones I saw landed were cheated(slight). She did land some triple toes, triple sals and double axels. It looked to me like alot of these jumps were two-footed.

Stephanie Tremblay(Canada) and Amelie Lacoste(Can): Most of my attention was on Michelle due to her hitting almost everything she tried so I didn't see too much between these two. They were both unfortunately struggling on the triples from what I did see.

Junior ladies practice session(group 2):

Brianna Perry(USA): I didn't pay too much attention to Brianna because I was busy watching Katy and the two Jessicas. She was definately struggling. She fell numerous times on the triple loop and I think landed it once. She also tried the lutz a fair bit and I did not see her land any. She really takes her time warming up her jumps.

Katy Taylor(USA): This girl is TINY! She came out and blew me away. Within two minutes of the session, she landed a perfect triple loop right in front of me. This must be her strong jump just because she did not do any doubles to even warm it up. She also landed all the other triples, including the lutz. She was clearly the jumper of the group in terms of consistency and ability to do all the triples. She really impressed me. The only criticism I would have is that her jumps are not very big. I am sure one of the reasons for her being able to jump so well is her quick rotation. She just spins so fast in the air.

Jessica Houston(USA): She left practice early. I don't know if she was sick but she didn't look like she was feeling 100% to me. I saw her do several triple toes, triple sals and some triple loops. I think some of the loops were cheated. It took her awhile before she really started landing any of the sals and loops. Clearly her toe is strong jump. As well, she has a tendency to slow down before she jumps.

Jessica Dube(Canada): I saw her do triple sals, loops and lutzes. I do not recall seeing her try any triple flips or triple toes. Anyways, she landed a couple of gorgeous triple lutzes. They were high and clean. She struggled with the sal and the loop for a while before she started landed some.

Laurin Henderson(Canada): Unfortunately, she struggled for much of the session. She landed a couple of triple loops and then proceeded to spend at least 10 minutes trying to land the triple lutz. They were close but she fell on all of them. I don't know how tall Laurin is but because she was in a group of such tiny girls, she really stood out in terms of height. She has some polishing to do on some of her other elements(see free skate notes).

[florac]

I do not have the free skate standings as I only took the final standings(sorry, I should have been paying more attention).

Here are the final standings:

1) Katy Taylor
2) Brianna Perry
3) Jessica Dube
4) Jessica Houston
5) Michelle Cantu
6) Amelie Lacoste
7) Laurin Henderson
8) Stephanie Tremblay
9) Emily Naphtal

Details will be in the next post.

[florac]

Junior Ladies Free(please see first post regarding inconsistencies in reporting). As well, I could only identify some of the music so that will not be included.

Emily Naphtal: Opened up on the triple toe(2 1/2 rev), double flip, 2 footed double axel, she appears to be skating quite slow, flying camel, opened up on triple loop(2 1/2), landed triple sal(could have been 2-footed), double toe double loop combo, layback, 2 footed double axel, double lutz, camel-sit-biellman on both feet combo spin to finish.

Tech: 3.3 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.2 3.4
Pres: 3.5 3.5 3.6 3.6 3.7 3.6 3.6

Michelle Cantu: Starts with double axel, clean and high triple lutz(she was very happy), double flip(should have been triple), triple loop(2 footed) double toe combo, flying catchfoot(I belive that's what it is called), triple sal(landed on wrong foot), nice spiral sequence into triple loop(falls although she landed tons in practice), she did a double and I missed it, beillman spin(slow), 2nd triple lutz(messy landing although it looked rotated) double toe combo(falls on the toe), and finishes with camel-sit-layback-back sit-back scratch combo spin. I really liked this performance despite the problems. I thought she had great presence.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I totally forgot to take the marks. I hope they will be posted elsewhere(USFSA site later on).

Amelie Lacoste: Started with double axel double toe combo which was nice, popped the triple lutz, almost landed the triple flip(too far forward), triple sal, fall on the triple loop, combo spin, triple loop(too far forward, didn't land cleanly), spiral sequence, popped triple sal, travelling layback, nice double axel, death drop spin(I believe) to end.

tech: 3.8 3.7 3.8 3.7 3.6 4.0 3.5
pres: 3.8 3.8 3.9 3.8 3.7 3.9 3.8

Stephanie Tremblay: Starts with triple toe(touched down with hands), sat on triple flip, spiral sequence, lots of skating around, double lutz(looked liked she may have been going for the triple), double axel, double toe(again, looked liked she wanted the triple), layback, opened up on triple loop, double lutz double toe combo, she's really slowing down at this point, I think she has run out of steam, single axel double toe combo and combo spin to end.

tech: 3.6 3.5 3.6 3.6 3.5 3.5 3.4
pres: 3.8 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 4.0 3.7

Next post will have group 2.

[florac]

Junior Ladies group 2

Warm-up:

Katy Taylor: Stroked around to warm up and within a minute of being on the ice, she landed a perfect triple loop in front of me.

Jessica Dube: Landed a gorgeous triple lutz.

Brianna Perry: nice triple toe

Jessica Houston and Laurin Henderson were both struggling.

Jessica Dube: Starts with double axel, triple sal(turn out), gorgeous triple lutz(Louis Stong was sitting right by me and I am sure he was impressed), double flip, flying camel-back beillman spin, fall on triple sal, double toe(I don't know if this was intentional or not), spiral sequence, double loop(should be triple), layback, double lutz, double axel double toe combo and closes with a fast combo spin. Jessica from what I saw needs to improve her consistency. She's very on and off. Her stong point, I believe, is her presentation.

tech: 4.4 4.5 4.7 4.6 4.0 4.4 4.0
pres: 4.6 4.6 5.0 5.0 4.2 4.6 4.5

Brianna Perry: Starts with nice triple lutz double toe combo(I was amazed that she landed the lutz as I saw her struggle with it in the practice earlier and the warm up). This was the first one I had seen her land all day. It may have been flutzed as well. She does that thing where she kicks her leg really high before she puts the pick into the ice(kind of like Andrea Gardiner, I think that's who does it, someone correct me if I am wrong). Anyways, next was the triple sal, double axel, triple toe, flying sit change sit-back scratch spin, fall on the triple loop, spiral sequence, double flip, layback, double axel double toe and finishes off eith a combo spin. Although she did fall on the triple loop and the presentation marks don't really reflect it(not with all the judges anyways), I really enjoyed her program and thought it was lovely.

tech: 4.6 4.6 4.9 4.9 4.2 4.6 4.0
pres: 4.6 4.7 5.1 4.9 4.4 4.7 4.3

Katy Taylor: Starts with triple flip, layback(nice), double axel, triple loop, triple lutz, combo spin, triple sal(fell), double axel, flying camel, triple loop double toe combo(hand touched ice) and finished with a second triple lutz. Although she did land more jumps than Brianna, I thought Brianna's program overall was more enjoyable. It just seemed like the whole program was jump, jump, and jump. Good for her though for completing so many triples. Her music was of the American patriotic variety.

tech: 5.0 4.6 5.0 5.1 4.5 4.9 4.2
pres: 4.5 4.6 4.8 4.8 4.3 4.7 4.6

Jessica Houston: The beginning of her program really grabbed my attention. Here music(middle eastern) was different from all the other girls. She was just really into the character and quite dramatic to begin with. Unfortunately, she took a hard fall on the first triple toe. She was pretty much on her stomach. Continuing on, she did a double flip, double toe(should be triple), combo spin, at this point she was skating rather slow, triple loop(tight landing), layback, cheated triple sal(at least it looked that way to me), triple toe(fell), double axel, double lutz and finishes with flying camel. I still think she wasn't feeling 100% or else she was having an off day.

tech: 3.8 4.2 4.0 3.9 3.5 3.8 3.7
pres: 3.7 4.3 4.0 4.0 3.6 4.1 4.2

Laurin Henderson: Starts with double axel, fall on triple lutz, triple sal(hand touched ice), flying camel, slipped on entry of triple toe and opened up, triple loop(legs were still crossed but she didn't fall), double sal, layback, single toe, double flip and ends with as messy combo spin(didn't really hold the positions and wasn't centered).

tech: 3.6 3.6 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.2 3.5
pres: 3.7 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.4 3.7

I think that's most of it. If I've made any mistakes, please correct me. I hope I was able to provide some of the details that some of you may have been curious about.

[becca]

Thanks so much for the reports! They were wonderful (very detialed). I really appreciate the effort and time that you put into them.

[Sylvia]

Thanks a lot, florac, for your detailed notes! Do you remember the type of music Brianna Perry skated to?

For those interested in learning more about Katy Taylor, here's an update she did with Unseen Skaters earlier this summer:
http://www.unseenskaters.com/articles/20032004/20030601_katy.html

Brianna Perry's interview from May:
http://www.unseenskaters.com/articles/20032004/20030525.html

[Trillian]

Thanks for the report! I'm glad to hear Brianna Perry, one of my local favorites, had a good showing since she's had some consistency problems in the last year or two. I would guess you're right in guessing that Jessica Houston was feeling "off" in some way, since she was reasonably consistent all last season and should be right up there with Taylor and Perry easily when she's 100%. It's too bad because this might have been her best shot at an international assignment, but hopefully she'll make up for it by doing well on the national level this season. I'm glad to hear she pulled off the triple loop since it's a new jump for her AFAIK. (Likewise with the lutz for Perry, actually.)

Once again I'm very impressed with Michelle Cantu's showing! It's so exciting to think that Mexico has an up-and-coming prospect on the international level.

[adrianchew]

Thanks florac for the reports - glad to see Katy doing so well, hopefully she might even get another international assignment, possibly JGP, if a spot opens up.

[becca]

Results from edmonton are finally up on the skate canada web site.

[alexaandra]

Thank you very much for your great reports and comments, I really appreciate them, as I don't think such information can be found anywhere else in the internet.
As I'm mexican, I'm very happy for Michelle Cantu, I remember 2 years ago she only had 3sal, I hope she can qualify to the 2006 olympics
Take care!!:D

[florac]

Thanks everyone. I wasn't planning to take any notes initially but then realized how much some people appreciate hearing details of the smaller events(I for one love reading reports from everybody regarding all the up and coming skaters). I am glad that you found the reports informative. If anything good comes to Edmonton again and I have the chance to go, I will definately post in the future.